MORRISBURG – It will be over three years from the time of the electrical grid failure at Upper Canada Village until the repairs and rebuild are complete.
Estimated to cost $8-million in 2023, the rebuilt grid should be completed by early 2025 said Infrastructure Ontario, which oversees capital procurement for the province’s ministries and crown agencies – including the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. The SLPC owns and operates the historic 1860s village attraction.
“IO continues to support the procurement and management of the electrical upgrade project on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Gaming at UCV,” said IO Vice President of Communications Alan Findlay in a statement to The Leader. “Essential work to repair and/or replace aging electrical infrastructure is ongoing. Full completion of the project is anticipated by the end of March 2025.”
There was extensive damage to the electrical grid at the Village when preventative maintenance work was being done on February 2, 2022. One of the three phases of its electrical service was knocked out, which overtaxed the other two phases. Characterized as a “house of cards” the system failed.
Since then, the historic village has run on generator power. While it may seem odd that a historical recreation of an 1860s Eastern Ontario/Upper Canadian village needs electricity, it does.
In a 2022 interview, director of historic sites for the SLPC, Geoff Waycik said that is used for sump pumps, heating in the winter, air conditioning and humidity control in the summer, lighting, security and safety features, along with washroom facilities.
Since the electrical failure, the entire site has been powered by a series of generators located throughout the village in inconspicuous spots.
“Unpredictably this happened and it really unveiled the 60 year old infrastructure of the village,” Waycik said. “A vast majority of the electrical dates to the installation of this site.”
Construction began on the original attraction in 1956 and it opened in 1961, two years after the official opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway project.
There were no details provided by IO about the extent of the electrical work underway at the UCV or the cost.